Peter Hoeg Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Peter Hoeg was born in Denmark in the year 1957, and is a celebrated writer of fiction. He got a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Copenhagen in the year 1984. He lives in Copenhagen with his daughters.

Before he became a writer, he lived quite an interesting life. From working on ships, mountaineering, fencing, and was even a ballet dancer. These are all experiences that he uses in his novels.

He writes mystery novels. His debut novel, “The History of Danish Dreams” was released in the year 1988. His work has been published in over thirty countries and “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” sold a million copies.

His novel “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow” won a Dilys Award for Best Book in the year 1994, and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Book.

“The History of Danish Dreams” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1988. This novel is made up of the interweaving of loves and lives of four different families. Within these family histories time expands, clocks either stop or they race forward at their will. The dreams and disappointments of the children of the author’s magnificent imagination foreshadow the themes in Hoeg’s novels “Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow” and “Borderliners”.

Some readers were blown away by this book. It features some stunning and surreal, and Hoeg plays all kinds of games with the expectations the reader may have. He makes it clear with this one that he can truly write a novel. This is one of those novels that you pick up and read when you are looking to give your brain some exercise.

“Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1993. She thinks more highly of ice and snow than of love. She lives in a world of memories, numbers, and science, an exotic and dark stranger in a strange land. Now Smilla Jasperson has become convinced that she has uncovered a crime.

It all happened in the Copenhagen snow. A Greenlander, just like Smilla but just six years old, fell to his death from the very top of his apartment building. As the boy’s body is still warm, the cops pronounce his death to be just an accident. Smilla knows her young neighbor did not just fall from the roof all on his own. Quickly she follows a path of clues just as clear to her as footsteps in the snow.

For both her dead neighbor, as well as herself, she has to go on a harrowing journey filled with revelation, lies, and violence that is going to take her back to the world of snow and ice that she comes from. It is here that an explosive secret waits underneath the ice.

Readers cannot help but return to this book, seeing as how Smilla is one of their favorite fictional characters. The book is technical and beautiful, never sentimental and touches on certain issues that some find very interesting.

“Borderliners” is the third stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1994. Strange things have started happening at Biehl’s Academy when this elite school begins opening its doors to some orphans and reform-school rejects, those kids at the end of the system’s tether. The school is run by a certain odd set of rules by which each and every minute is regimented and controlled.

Quickly, they have the suspicion that they are guinea pigs in some strange social experiment and their only hope of escape is breaking through a dangerous threshold of both space and time.

“The Woman and the Ape” is the fourth stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1996. The heroine in this love story is Madelene Burden. She is both disillusioned and lonely despite the upper-crust London existence, she is a sleeping beauty in the modern world, sleeping gently in a alcoholic stupor.

The prince whose kiss gives her life is not a handsome, tall, and dark man. He is a three hundred pound, dark, and short ape called Erasmus. Erasmus, the victim of a smuggling attempt gone wrong, is taken to Madelene’s home. Adam, Madelene’s husband, who is a distinguished behavioral scientist, believes the ape’s sophisticated intelligence makes him more human than animal.

If correct, Erasmus would make for a most lucrative addition to Adam’s zoo. Madelene is determined to save Erasmus from all kinds of inhumane tests certain to rob the ape of all the qualities that make him so unlike other apes. Pursuing this goal with all of the same energy she used to reserve for her drinking, Madelene’s compassion turns right into passion. The woman and beast make their escape and fall in love with each other.

Erasmus journeyed to England with a purpose that eventually makes the couple have to face the world they were seeking to flee.

This is an insightful parable about things such as animals and man, free will, science, humanism, and destiny. It leads readers to some ultimate questions about love, life, and survival.

“The Quiet Girl” is the fifth stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2007. Kaspar Krone, who is a world renowned clown that has a deep love for Johan Sebastian Bach’s music, and a much deeper gambling debt. He is wanted for tax evasion and about to be extradited, Krone gets drafted into a mysterious order of nun’s service that promise him reprieve from the international authorities. In return, he has to help guard some kids with mystical abilities, ones that Krone shares.

One of the kids goes missing, and Krone goes off to find the little girl and take her back. Along the way, he makes some rather shocking discoveries about the real intentions of his little wards and her identity.

Here is an inventive, masterful reads that is the triumphant return of a great writer from the international literary world. The book is a fast paced and philosophical thriller that blends the literary fantastic and social realism.